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It is with great pleasure that I address your commission for the
second time, the first date beind April 1995 when I exposed to you
the situation of child domestics in Togo. Today, permit to raise
another subject of concern: the trafficking of children from Togo
to other destinations. We cannot remain inactive and silent facing
the drama in which the children of Togo still live, despite the
decisions made at the world summit on the sexual explotation of
children for commermial ends which took place in Stockholm in August
in August 1996.
The traffic of children is a current practice among the countries
of the sub region of Western Africa. The phenomenon spreads and
institutionalizes itself through informal networks for the exportation
of children to the Gulf countries and to Europe. WAO-Afrique was
contacted by a young girl from Togo who was actually in Lebanon,
who wrote to relate the conditions of her recruitment, life and
work and to inform us of the existence of relay points in Africa
for this flourishing commerce. While WAO-Afrique undertook the internal
proceedings (security services, police),and the proceedings outside
of the country (with Anti-International and Agir Ensemble) to conduct
an investigation, traffickers of children were arrested in Lome
and Cotonou. At the same time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs received
a letter from his Charge d'Affaires at the Gabon Embassy that signaled
the existence of trafficking of children in that country.
These written testimonies and arrests touched the governmental conscience
regarding this problem. I would like to remind you that Togo has
ratified numerous international instruments which have implications
for the children and their families. In particular:
-the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
-the 1973 OIT Convention number 138 concerning the minimum age of
the child to be employed;
-the 1949 Convention for the trade of human beings and the explotation
of prostitution of others;
-the global Declaration in favor of the survival, protection and
development of the child and its action plan.
The Togolese Code for people and the family, promulgated in January
1988, protects the child in general. However, there is no legal
text which specifically regulates the departure of children outside
of the counties borders.
Though the traffic of children has been made clesr by concrete facts,
for the moment it still does not constitute a priority at a national
level. Therefore there does not exit a visible program to eradicate
the problem. This situation is explained by the following:
-a chronic lack of information and data on the phenomenon;
- absense of campaigns to increase public awareness and sensitvity
and social mobilization;
- the chronic lack of technical competence with regard to possibilities
and modalities of action;
- the illiteracy of parents and the lack of education of girl-children
- the absence of viable subltitute solutions to aid the parents
in keeping the children with them.
WAO-Afrique has pursued its initiative into the investigation on
the trafficking of children with the financial contributions of
Anti-Slavery International and Agir Ensemble. The public
has alredy been warned of the problem. Nevertheless,it has been
difficult to acquire the necessary information to accuse the people
involved. The trafficking phenomena is becoming more hidden and
more practisced in shielding itself from any control. The children
are often afraid of their parents and do not easily give information
about the trafficking which they the object.
The study identifies four types of trafficking:
- parents who organize themslves to sell their children;
- children found on the street and picked up by people with harmful
who remove their organs for occult practices;
- parents who hire their children out for a time judged necessary
to repay a contractual dept
- parents who place their children in the care of another person
(parents, friends, neighbours or strangers) who then place them
either in Togo or abroad.
It also reveals several channels of placement and trafficking:
The different channels through which children are moved can be summed
up as a circuit which, within the country, brings children from
rural zones to urban centres from which they are moved out of the
country. The immigration centers which have been identified are
the prefectures of Vo, Yoto, Zio (in the South), Kloto (in the South-west),
Tchaoudjo and Assoli (in the Center). Once out of the country, the
children leaving Togo are dreined to Ghana, the Cote d'Ivoire and
Burkina Faso. The principle channel transports through Benin, Nigeria
via Gabon or the European Union Countries and especially the Gulf
countries. WAO-Afrique is aware of the ecistence of other immigration
centers which have yet to be identified.
The traffic of children especially concerns young girls between
the ages of eight and twelve. Children as young as six have also
been found. There is a very distinct preference on the part of parents
to place girls rather than boys in the service of parents, be they
close or far away. According to the investigation, the phenomenon
affects 80 per cent of children in rural environments of which 75
per cent of the girls have never set foot in a school. More than
50% of them are younger than 14 years old.
The obstacles in the fight for the elimination of this phenomenon
are of two types; those which follow from the very nature of the
problem and those which are linked to the absence of institutional,
administrative and legal mechanisms.
Possible solutions
The resolution of this problem of trafficking in Togo is practically
impossible due to the abundance of the migrations of infantile man-power
in the sub-region. At the time of the last meeting (February 1997)
of the countries of the Conseil de l'Entente (Benin, Burkina Faso,
Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Togo) the problem was raised before the
concerned countries. It is therefore urgent that a working relationship
is established between NGOs and certain governmental services in
different countries with the goal of exchanging experiences, to
conduct first hand research, to inform and launch campaigns, to
carry out speeches for the defence, to propose solutions of substitution
relating to these children and to elaborate a regional plan of action
for the struggle against exploitation and the trafficking of children
in West Africa.
This regional plan of action will permit the organization and convergence
of national programmes (governments, NGOs) for the eradication of
trafficking and the exploitation of child labour.
In Togo, since 1992, WAO -Afrique and other NGOs have worked together
in a national coalition to go forward with actions for the protection
of children. In close cooperation with national and international
NGOs, several governments, churches and the media, we have succeeded
in gaining the support of more and more partners for our cause.
This was the case with the s tudy on the exploitation ofchild domestic
workers which was made in 1994 in Togo thanks to the financial aid
of Anti-Slavery International and the French NGO Agir Ensemble
de Droits de l'Homme. It is this support which allows us even
to this day to come before you to prove the existence of trafficking
of children in Togo. whichtook place in 1994 in Togo thanks to the
financial aid of Anti-Slavery International which permits us even
to this day to come before you to prove the existence of the trafficking
of children in Togo through their support and the support of the
French NGO Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l'Homme.
Thus, together or separately, WAO-Afrique, Radda Barnen, Child Rights
in collaboration with UNICEF-Togo, the United States Embassy in
Togo, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the cooperation
of the Togolese Minister of Justice and Human Rights have sponsored
or organised several seminars and working meetings on the Convention
of the Rights of the Child in general and the exploitation of children
in particular.
At the same time, since 1994, we have launched with great success
an informational campaign on the traffic of children from Togo to
other countries.
The phenomenon of trafficking children in Togo could only be resolved
by a concerted regional action involving all interested partners.
We take this occasion to call upon BIT, UNICEF, UNESCO, PNUD, upon
the group of NGOs on the Convention of the Rights of the Child and
especially on the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations
to work together in a partnership to reach a global solution while
contributing to the elaboration of a regional plan of action in
the struggle against the exploitation and the trafficking of children
in West Africa.
Finally, the rapid investigation into the traffic of children in
Togo initiatedby WAO-Afrique already allows us to undertake information
campaigns,raising public compassion and mobility regarding the problem.
WAO-Afrique echoesthe necessity of organising an exhaustive research
on a national level with the goal of determining the numbers of
corroborators, the size of the problem, and establishing a systematic
collection of information on the children who have been the victims
of trafficking.
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